Avoid diet and weight talk around teens: pediatricians to parents

[Tennis]

Parents of overweight teens and their doctors should not focus on the number on the scale because negative talk about weight can be harmful, a U.S. pediatric group says.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advised its members and parents to focus on encouraging healthy behaviours to help teens avoid obesity and eating disorders.

The academy developed the guidelines in response to growing concern about teenagers' use of unhealthy methods to lose weight.

The new recommendations include strategies adults can use to help teenagers avoid both obesity and eating disorders. They apply to all teens, not just those with weight problems.

Three recommendations focus on behaviours to avoid:

Parents and doctors should not encourage dieting.
Avoid "weight talk," such commenting on their own weight or their child's weight.
Never tease teens about their weight.

"If the kid sees a lot of dieting behaviours around their parents, it can unfortunately lead to [thinking] this is sort of the norm and that we put a lot of value on body image," said Dr. Christine Wood, a pediatrician in San Diego, Calif., who helped develop the recommendations. "For young teens this can become an issue, and many of the kids that we see with eating disorders, it starts with sort of a body image issue."

Brenndon Goodman of Toronto said constant talk about his weight strained relations with his parents. He weighed more than 300 pounds by his mid-teens.

The university student recalls going to his doctor and being told to lose weight. Goodman would then go on a diet that would last about a week.

Pushing an agenda on a teen about food and how much weight they should lose can spiral into the wrong behaviours from the child, Wood said.

Unhealthy lifestyle the problem, not weight

Goodman commends the academy's recommendations. "It's not about the weight. It's not about the numbers."

Fundamentally, pediatricians say, the problem is thinking of weight as the problem when unhealthy lifestyle is the true problem.

Two of the group's recommendations focus on behaviours to promote:

Families should eat regular meals together.
Parents should help their children develop a healthy body image by encouraging them to eat a balanced diet and exercise for fitness rather than weight loss.
In Goodman's case, in 2012 he underwent bariatric surgery and lost a third of his weight. He admits he has more work to do.

The recommendations were published in this week's issue of the journal Pediatrics.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/obesit...tric-1.3734769

Can you believe this nonsense?
Tip toe around the issue with your round kids while they get bullied at school for their large mass?
Recipe for failure. We need to be tough.

[TrumpIsPresident]

Various clips demonstrating the type of person behind such nonsense.

Fat is an identity group and thus criticizing fat, or acknowledge its unhealthy side effects, is akin to genocide.

[Deleted]

Tennisace, you never cease to amaze.

[Draco-Onis]

This is not SJW talk this is reality, telling someone to go on a diet and lose weight is like giving them a fish, they will go back to being heavy and unhealthy rather quickly once the diet is done that's why most people can't lose weight and keep it off. By encouraging families to follow a healthy lifestyle you basically teaching them how to fish so that those teenagers can stay healthy for a long time. They will take a lot longer to lose the weight but they won't have to worry about gaining it back, promoting healthy lifestyle instead of dieting is how you keep people healthy.

Diets don't lead to healthy people lifestyle changes do.

[carenard]

I would have rathered my family and doctors press the matters more than they did then let me grow up fat and regretting my childhood decisions

[Runefeather]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/obesit...tric-1.3734769

Can you believe this nonsense?
Tip toe around the issue with your round kids while they get bullied at school for their large mass?
Recipe for failure. We need to be tough.

Mm i see where you are coming but I do not think that is what they are referring to. What they are saying is teach kids stuff like "exercise and eat healthy, avoid junk food" instead of saying "you're fat, lose weight".

Unfortunately it is common for teenagers to become weight obsessed instead of health obsessed. This can lead to unhealthy eating habits which can cause weight gain/loss cycles.

[bladeXcrasher]

Can't wait for you to get banned again, so we can be spared your false outrage threads.

[Deleted]

Diets for teenagers = health risk
Obesity in teenagers = proud identity.

Behold, the depths of unchecked neo-liberal idiocy.

[Spectral]

Can you believe this nonsense?

Families should eat regular meals together.
Parents should help their children develop a healthy body image by encouraging them to eat a balanced diet and exercise for fitness rather than weight loss.

Yes, I can believe that this is better advice than telling kids to diet.

[May90]

It is such nonsense, to let people live their lives the way they want, without picking on them for petty reasons...

[Nerdgasm]

If this was about "don't talk about weight or you will hurt their feelings" i would laugh.

But this is not. It's about introducing a healthy lifestyle without introducing your children to eating disorders. Christine Wood isn't exacly a pro fat sjw.

[Nefarious Tea]

Various clips demonstrating the type of person behind such nonsense.

Fat is an identity group and thus criticizing fat, or acknowledge its unhealthy side effects, is akin to genocide.

The first thing that popped into my mind was actually the exact opposite; trying to keep teenagers (mostly girls, let's be honest) who are already a healthy weight from trying to stupid and dangerous things to be unnecessarily thinner.

Trust me as a teacher, you never forget the sound of someone throwing up their lunch on purpose just to be skinny.

[Deleted]

"Don't talk about your child's weight". Why not? You're telling a parent that they shouldn't talk to their child about their weight? Oh wait this is America, where you can't parent because it'll hurt the kid's feelings.

[Shibito]

Seems tennisface ban let up

[TrumpIsPresident]

The first thing that popped into my mind was actually the exact opposite; trying to keep teenagers (mostly girls, let's be honest) who are already a healthy weight from trying to stupid and dangerous things to be unnecessarily thinner.

Trust me as a teacher, you never forget the sound of someone throwing up their lunch on purpose just to be skinny.

An equally important health issue although one that is lacking in an identity shielded movement seeking victim status.

[s_bushido]

Can you believe this nonsense?
Tip toe around the issue with your round kids while they get bullied at school for their large mass?
Recipe for failure. We need to be tough.

So how long until you post a thread about the horrors of slut/weight shaming women?

[wowaccounttom]

walking masses of fat need to be told to stop being nasty...


no one wants to see fat ....people?

[TirielWoW]

Families should eat regular meals together.
Parents should help their children develop a healthy body image by encouraging them to eat a balanced diet and exercise for fitness rather than weight loss.

Yup. Total bullshit.

[Deletedaccount1]

That is a load of crap. My dad yelling at me to get in shape as kid made me start going to the gym in the first place, something that I've done for well over 10 years now.

[Tennis]

So how long until you post a thread about the horrors of slut/weight shaming women?

Who says I think it is horrible? I've never voiced my opinion on the former from what I recall.